Oregon Public Broadcasting

With Halloween approaching you might have goblins, ghouls and bite-sized candy on the mind. But some Northwest residents are already deep into Christmas preparations.

That's because they work for nurseries and spend the season constructing wreaths, swags and garlands.  Anna King reports.

Joel Johnson is the sales manager for Eshraghi Nurseries in Hillsboro, Oregon. He says if they waited until November or December to collect tree bows, pine cones and other forest materials for Christmas wreaths it would be too late.

Joel Johnson: “Well typically we want to get it while it still has some nice color to it. If you go up now you can get a nice blue on the Nobel, the juniper berries have a nice blue hue to them. And if it gets a pretty solid frost or freeze it could change some of the coloring on the material.”

Johnson says his company makes about a half a million wreaths and swags.

They ship as far as the Midwest, the East Coast and Canada. Oregon has some of the largest nursery businesses in the region.